Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 21, 2015; 21(31): 9453-9456
Published online Aug 21, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i31.9453
Growth hormone used to control intractable bleeding caused by radiation-induced gastritis
Liang Zhang, Wen-Jie Xia, Zheng-Sen Zhang, Xin-Liang Lu
Liang Zhang, Wen-Jie Xia, Zheng-Sen Zhang, Xin-Liang Lu, Department of Gastroenterology, Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310009, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Lu XL was responsible for the patient’s care and follow-up; Zhang ZS reviewed the literature; Xia WJ and Zhang L wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Xin-Liang Lu, PhD, Department of Gastroenterology, Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, No. 88 Jiefang Road, Hangzhou 310009, Zhejiang Province, China. xinliang.lu@yahoo.com
Telephone: +86-571-87022776 Fax: +86-571-87022776
Received: February 3, 2015
Peer-review started: February 6, 2015
First decision: April 13, 2015
Revised: May 11, 2015
Accepted: June 10, 2015
Article in press: June 10, 2015
Published online: August 21, 2015
Processing time: 197 Days and 14.8 Hours
Abstract

Intractable bleeding caused by radiation-induced gastritis is rare. We describe a 69-year-old man with intractable hemorrhagic gastritis induced by postoperative radiotherapy for the treatment of esophageal carcinoma. Although anti-secretory therapy with or without octreotide was initiated for hemostasis over three months, melena still occurred off and on, and the patient required blood transfusions to maintain stable hemoglobin. Finally growth hormone was used in the treatment of hemorrhage for two weeks, and hemostasis was successfully achieved. This is the first report that growth hormone has been used to control intractable bleeding caused by radiation-induced gastritis.

Keywords: Growth hormone; Upper gastrointestinal bleeding; Radiation-induced gastritis

Core tip: Intractable bleeding caused by radiation-induced gastritis is rare. We describe a 69-year-old man with intractable hemorrhagic gastritis induced by postoperative radiotherapy for the treatment of esophageal carcinoma. Anti-secretory therapy with or without octreotide seemed in vain. Finally growth hormone was used in the treatment of hemorrhage for two weeks, and hemostasis was successfully achieved. This is the first report that growth hormone has been used to control intractable bleeding caused by radiation-induced gastritis.